As he released my face I started struggling again, spitting and swearing behind my gag. I could feel myself morphing into something a little feral, animalistic. My caged wolf howled and screamed with me, and I was still thankful to have her, suppressed bond and all. I fought and bucked more as he leaned into me, and then with no hesitation he sunk his fangs into my throat.
I’d never let any vampire drink from me, not even Maximus. Although he’d healed a few of my cuts and said my blood was delicious. So I had no idea of the sensation of being fed on, and now that I knew, well, I didn’t like it. It hurt. Badly.
Vlad wasn’t trying to make it nice for me. He was rough and mean and did not send even an ounce of calming energy toward me. He wanted my fear and anger; strong emotions made the blood change. See, I’d paid attention in vampire studies.
I knew I was starting to lose a lot of blood. I could feel that crazy, light-headed haze that preluded a black out. I wanted to fight, but my strength was disappearing.
He pulled away from me then. There was a loud crack. It took me a few moments to realize he’d slapped me. The pain was a dull register.
“Don’t pass out on me yet, I want you conscious for this. It’s no fun if you don’t know what’s happening.”
He was going to die a thousand deaths, in this life and every single one after this. The right side of my face was numb, which meant he’d hit me hard enough to do a bit of damage. In fact, my eye was starting to swell and close already.
“Your blood is incredible. I’m tempted to steal you away and keep you as my personal sex and blood slave.” He sighed. “But alas, other important people need some of you, so I’ll just have to enjoy my fill today.”
He started to touch me then, running his finger from my lips down my chin to my breasts. Despite my lethargy, this sent a shot of adrenalin through me and I started to fight and scream around the gag. I would not let this happen, I could not let this happen. I tried to reach my wolf, fighting the bars that caged her. But it was like trying to dig through stone with my fingertips. Useless. We both started to howl together. And then a third voice joined in.
My demon.
The vampire’s fingers were moving lower again, circling around my belly button. The piece-of-shit was prolonging this, driving the fear, the anticipation for himself, so full and flushed with my blood.
I flung free the cage on the demon. After twenty-two years I was damning all consequences and releasing the bonds. An unearthly whistling started to ring through my body, so loud I couldn’t tell if the noise was inside or if the vampire could hear it too. Then power flooded me, strong, thick, and all encompassing. The cage around my wolf was blown away, but in that moment I was too overwhelmed to latch on to her. In fact, she seemed to be cowering away a little, letting the demon power free. It continued to fill me. I could see the tide flowing and I wondered what would happen when it reached the top of my head.
As the swell reached its peak, I knew I was about to find out. I closed my eyes, as if somehow that was going to make this easier. It didn’t.
A thousand knives stabbed through me, filleting my skin, breaking my bones, destroying everything that I was and remaking me as something new. I’d felt a similar pain the first time I’d shifted to wolf, but such a minute piss-poor version that it was barely worth comparing. I huffed in and out, my breath limited behind the cloth. I needed more air, I needed to be free. There was nothing worse than this sort of pain and the inability to move around on the ground. My eyes were still closed, I couldn’t seem to open them. My chains burst free, and in the same heartbeat I shifted.
It took longer than usual, and afterwards I was disorientated. Getting to all fours, I expected to feel like my wolf. But something was wrong, off about the shift. Why the hell was the floor so far away? My eyesight was strange as well. Generally I saw things in a black, white, and grayscale landscape, but now I had super intense vision. Even in the darkness the room was so bright, colors streaming at me in long waves – was I seeing the freaking light spectrum?
I was hungry, so hungry. I wanted to eat, and there was only one thing in this room even remotely edible. I stumbled, unsure of these new longer limbs. It felt as if I was heavier at the back; something dragged along and tripped me up. It took two steps to reach the vampire cowering in the corner.
Enemy.
Must be destroyed. Instinct driving me, I opened my mouth.
“Jessa!”
A shout halted my movement. I spun around; my head seemed to be able to swivel at least ninety degrees further than it could as a wolf. Braxton stood on the other side of the room, his hands held aloft. I’d reacted to the noise of his yell, but the name meant nothing to me.
I was not a Jessa, I was a nightmare brought to life. I could kill, destroy and hunt with ease. I was never going to be weakened again. I was a dragon.
It had taken my mind a few minutes to piece it together. Not a shadow spirit, I was the real deal.